Carpe 2

What is death?

I had never deeply thought about it.

I had watched the ends of countless beings on the battlefield, but it was always someone else’s matter.

Death was something that came to the weak, and for the strong like me, it was a distant story.

But now… I understand.

Death is not the end.

At least, not for me.

In the moment the world was shrouded in darkness, I thought I had finally been freed from everything.

When two Great Labyrinth cores tore my body apart and destroyed everything, when my consciousness faded with the pain, I thought I had escaped it all.

But… when I awoke, I still existed.

I had no body.

There was nothing I could touch or feel.

Only my consciousness remained, faint and hazy.

Was this… a soul?

I wandered.

Without knowing where I was going or what I was heading toward.

In that empty space where even the flow of time was imperceptible.

Occasionally… very occasionally, something would pass by.

Shapes that I couldn’t tell if they were light or darkness, energies that I couldn’t distinguish as sound or silence.

But I couldn’t properly perceive or understand them.

I simply… existed.

How much time had passed?

A hundred years? A thousand?

Or was it just a day?

In that space where the concept of time itself lost meaning, everything felt eternal, yet fleeting.

At times, I thought about the past.

My childhood in the underground prison, my blind loyalty to Abraxas, and the longing for freedom I held at the end.

Those memories were my only comfort.

At least they allowed me to confirm that I had once lived.

What I thought about most often was that book.

The small book I had picked up in the burning city had changed my life.

The elegant garden, the afternoon tea, the lace-decorated dress, the fragrant black tea, and the sweet macarons…

How beautiful that world was, one I had never experienced.

And how pathetic I was to have died chasing that dream.

But I had no regrets.

In my final moments, I could be my true self, if only briefly.

Without the armor, without the mask, as my small and fragile self.

Those days continued.

But then…

Something called out to me.

With a force so strong, so irresistible.

Like iron drawn to a magnet, my soul was being pulled in one direction.

Without will, without resistance.

Where was I being led?

What was calling me?

With a confused heart, I was drawn to that force…

And suddenly, everything stopped.

And I realized.

I… was trapped somewhere.

In a narrow, suffocating space surrounded by walls.

Unable to move, unable to escape… like being locked in a very small iron cage.

Then…

“Nis-nim, congratulations! It’s been 231 years since we’ve acquired a soul!”

A loud, joyful voice echoed.

It was a woman’s voice, stiff yet loyal.

Nis?

The ruler of the Desmere Trench, Nis?

As I struggled to understand the situation…

“Deiana, keep it down. You’ll burst my eardrums.”

Another voice spoke.

Smooth, cold, and carrying the leisure of a superior.

Nis…

It was truly Nis, the ruler of Desmere.

A being even Abraxas feared.

So, was I now in her grasp?

“I’m sorry!! Nis-nim! Is this soul finally going to be my subordinate!?”

Deiana, the one who had been called out, shouted with even greater excitement.

A subordinate?

Did they plan to make me their underling?

Having lived as a slave to Abraxas and now, even in death, to become Nis’s subordinate?

Dreaming of freedom, only to have it denied even in death?

“Hmph, I’ll have to see if this one can adapt… First, let’s see what grudges and attachments this soul has.”

Nis’s voice drew closer.

It felt as though I was being examined.

Like a researcher examining a test subject.

“Let’s see… Hmm…?”

There was a brief silence.

“Freedom… and noble lady…?”

Nis’s voice was filled with surprise.

In that moment, I felt a shiver run through my entire… soul.

Freedom.

Noble lady.

Were those my grudges and attachments?

My desperate wish to escape Abraxas.

My longing for the elegant and beautiful life of a noble I had seen in the book.

Were those the chains that bound me to this world?

“Hah! What nonsense! I’ll dispose of it immediately!”

Deiana’s cold declaration rang out.

Useless?

Dispose of it?

My lifelong dreams, the hopes I couldn’t let go of even in death, were they so worthless?

But as a soul, I could do nothing.

I could only listen to their conversation.

“Hmm… No. Let’s keep it. It might be useful someday.”

Nis’s calm voice saved me.

For reasons unknown, she had decided not to destroy me.

“Yes, sir!!”

Deiana’s loud reply came just as a wave of intense pain surged through me.

“Ahh!”

It was the first pain I had felt since becoming a soul.

A horrific sensation as though my existence was being torn and compressed.

As though my soul itself was being crushed by something.

And with the pain… all sounds disappeared.

Complete silence.

Nis’s voice, Deiana’s voice, all sounds vanished.

I was left alone in a silence so profound it felt like a disconnection from the world.

But this solitude was different from before.

It wasn’t a state of nothingness, but a clear awareness of being confined.

And the anxiety that I would one day be taken out and used.

Freedom…

Where was the freedom I had longed for?

Was I destined to be the property of others, even in life and death?

Like the protagonist in the book, sipping tea in a beautiful garden, living a peaceful life.

Was such a simple yet free life forever denied to me?

Time passed.

Not as long as before.

It didn’t feel like hundreds or thousands of years, perhaps just a few days.

And once again, I began to move.

It felt like being released from a narrow prison into a vast field.

But soon after… I was being pulled into something.

Where?

Into what?

The sensation I felt in that moment was… utterly foreign.

There was cold.

A biting, harsh cold.

But it was different from the cold I knew.

Not the cold of death… but the warmth of a will that stubbornly endured.

And surprisingly… I could sense a vigorous life force even in this harsh cold.

Small but strong, an energy that would not yield to anything, a pure life force.

And… there was a sweet fragrance.

Gentle yet rich, the scent of a flower.

Could it be…

Slowly, very slowly, I began to sense my surroundings.

The sensation was completely different from when I was just a soul.

Before, I had only drifted with my consciousness, but now… I felt connected to something.

A strange sensation as though I was directly linked to life itself.

As I cautiously extended my consciousness along the boundaries of this space, I felt soft curves embracing me.

Delicate and elegant shapes… and life force pulsed through all of them.

This was clearly…

A flower.

A single, lethally beautiful flower.

Had I… become a flower?

What an ironic fate.

Having lived a life of destruction and death, I had ended up embedded in a symbol of life and beauty.

With hands that had once trampled and burned countless flowers while serving Abraxas…

Now, I had become the flower itself.

Yet, strangely… it didn’t feel unpleasant.

For the first time, I felt a sense of peace.

Was this… the beginning of the free life I had longed for?

Then, a sudden wave of emotion surged through me.

“Ugh…! Can a mere potion really grant a trait…?”

I didn’t hear the voice through sound, but felt it directly as someone’s thought.

Was this… the flower’s thought?

Or had I become a being that clung to the flower?

But I could do nothing.

I could only feel the flower’s emotions.

Time passed.

Through the flower’s emotions, I learned many things.

The flower’s name was Lycoris.

A subordinate of Frostia, the ruler of Shia Kalt.

Frostia was a quieter ruler than Ceranos, and information about her was scarce.

And this Lycoris loved… deeply, seriously loved Frostia.

Like a child gazing at a star in the sky, knowing it’s unreachable but refusing to give up.

And astonishingly, this flower possessed tremendous power.

Abilities so strong that even the monsters of the Great Labyrinth feared them.

Yet, even when using that power, her only desire was to make Frostia happy.

Such pure devotion.

How different from Abraxas and me…

“Carpe-nim, are you alright?”

A familiar voice brought me back to reality.

Asterix…

“I was lost in thought…”

“I thought you’d lost your mind because of Lycoris. We’d have to wait a long time again…”

“It’s fine. Waiting is what I do best.”

I smiled quietly and replied.